The Next Generation
by ValkyrieVeela
Summary: Their parents' old foes may be gone, but there are many out there who still want to harm the COLAs - and their kids. Starting with Aislinn's story. This could be a series in its own right if you people review and think it's actually worth it! .P.S: I don't actually know what the ratings mean...
1. Prologue : Aislinn's Flashbacks

**Hi everyone! This is only my second ever FanFic so go easy on me - but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review! Check out my other Fic, 'Tears' on the Merlin site.**

**This Fic is about the kids of the characters in 'Shapeshifter', mainly focusing on Aislinn (ASH-lyn) who is the daughter of Lisa and Dax. This is just my first attempt; if anyone likes this prologue which is a collection of Aislinn's flashbacks then I might do other Fics from the point of view of some of the other kids.**

**PLEASE REVIEW (DON'T FORGET TO ENJOY)!**

* * *

_The dark-haired man laughs as she struggles to her feet after yet another failed attempt._

"_We both know you can do this, wolfling! Remember, ten pounds of your poor father's hard-earned money is riding on this!"_

"_Oh _please_ Dax, she obviously takes after me – I heard her talking to Sylv when she had that nightmare, I told you!" The pretty blonde woman in the corner has a faintly amused look on her face as she tries to reach around her protruding belly to pick a pink slip off the floor. The man just smiles._

"_You'll have your chance with the next one, Lisa – Aislinn is a wolf shifter, I can _smell_ it on her. You're just sore about losing the stupid bet." Turning back to his daughter, the man says again, "Come now wolfling, you've already mastered it in your Primary Shift; walking in your Original Form can't be _that_ much harder now." _

_The little dark girl continues with her battle between her feet and the soft carpet. Eventually, the two-year-old gives a howl of frustration and leaps at the man, paws flying as he catches her._

"_I told you – I _told_ you!" He yells joyfully as he presents her to the blonde._

* * *

_The man cries out in pain and fear. The woman is shrieking desperately._

"_NO – not my babies, please not my babies, please don't take my babies away from me - !"_

_Her cries are cut off as a hand swoops down out of nowhere and strikes her face, rendering her limp with the blow. The man, only a few feet away, cries out louder now, in grief as well as in pain. Even the dark girl, now four years old with her little blonde sister Skylar in her arms, heard the __**snap **__as the woman's neck was broken. Almost immediately a gunshot is heard; her little sister does not realise it yet but the dark girl knows that the pair have just been orphaned. All they can do now is wait for their captors to finish the job._

* * *

_Staring at the ceiling of her cell, the dark girl, now four years old, knows the price of tears. _

_When they took her sister away for 'special testing' she feared that she would soon lose the last member of her family she had left. After the men in dark grey showed up and apprehended the murderers she thought she would be safe. Instead, she watched as the men were berated for killing the adults in such relatively painless ways, and before she was even aware of what had occurred she found herself drugged and taken away in a big black van. She'd awoken alone on a hard mattress in the dimly-lit cell. A few hours later the men returned with her sister, saying that she needed to 'shut the brat up'. Of course she comforts the little one – how could she not? – but bursts into tears herself when confronted with the question "When are Mammy and Da coming to get us?". The guards are furious at this point. They beat her till she quiets; they threaten Skylar when she looks like she might start up again. They take the blonde away. _

_The dark girl shivers; the men are coming back, she can smell them. This time though, they come without her sister. They tell her that Skylar has been put up for adoption but that because of her bruises the dark girl will not be joining her for a few weeks. By then, they tell her Skylar will already have a new family, one she cannot join. She will be assigned a different family, far away from her sister. She almost cries when she hears this._

_But, staring at the ceiling of her cell, the dark girl, only four years old, knows the price of her tears._

* * *

**So... what do you think? Please say it's good - I actually spent a fair bit of time on this!**

**Don't forget about aforementioned other Fic - I'm a newbie, I need a little encouragement!**

**Ta!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry this isn't very good but I swear 'something will turn up'! (Any Micawber fans reading this can give themselves a cheer!)**

**So yeah, it's... mediocre and... stuff... but if someone gives me some ideas via a review I might come up with something better for the rest of the story?**

**Try to enjoy what little goodness there is in this - I HAVE made an effort, pinky swear!**

* * *

With a desperate howl, Aislinn woke up.

She hadn't had the nightmare for a good long while – in fact, she hadn't even remembered she'd had it until a few months ago. She couldn't understand where she'd got it from or why it would suddenly come back after – she totted it up quickly – just over seven years? Granted, it had come back every full moon for the year so far, but still...

It couldn't be from a book or a film, her parents would never expose her to something like that; when the nightmare first came, she'd only been five years old. As she walked to the bathroom of the house, Aislinn reflected that although most people had only a vague sense at best of the first four years of their lives, she did not even have that. Right up until she was five years old and was calling her parents for the nightmare, any attempt at recollection drew an absolute blank – or worse, a near-fatal panic attack that no-one seemed able to explain to her. All she got was a deep-seated ache in her chest, almost as if she were mourning for her lost years.

She frowned. Thoughts such as these were no good to anyone and would hardly help her get through her exams in the morning. Although, she noted that the world had a faint golden tinge to it now, so it was too early to return to her bed, yet too late to revise. She hurriedly finished her drink and headed towards her parents' bedroom. They'd heard her howling, of that she was sure, but a few weeks ago they'd had a talk about her independence and had come to understand that if she needed them, she would not hesitate to come to them.

As she slipped under the covers, Aislinn could have sworn she heard her mother mutter something along the lines of 'Come in, littlie, the bad men won't take you away', but of course she had never disclosed the exact contents of her nightmare, so Mum couldn't possibly be referring to that.

* * *

Aislinn was bored.

It was summertime again, and she and her classmates were stuck inside a stuffy classroom with the most boring man alive droning on and on and on and on about... erm...something to do with Geography. Nobody was actually listening, for the simple reason that nobody actually cared. The exams were over and done with, all the topics had pretty much been covered, the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

So WHY did they have to stay indoors with a bunch of other hyperactive fifteen-year-olds listening to a forty-year-old man talk about the intricacies of _cliff formations_?! It was enough to make anyone go mad.

And unfortunately, Aislinn had a reputation for that.

This year, Aislinn's focus was on Art and nature studies. As it had been last year, and the year before that, and... you get the idea. Sadly, many of her associates absolutely did _not_ get the idea, and in previous years had been liable to tease her about it and make fun of her. Once, someone had even tried to destroy a painting she'd done, a painting of a beautiful blue-black she-wolf that she'd spent months working on. This triggered the rather unfortunate response of having a blur of wavy black hair barrel into the culprit, nearly breaking his neck in the process. After that, some of his friends tried to get their revenge. When this obviously failed, everyone left the short dark girl well alone for fear of another outburst. This suited her just fine; no-one really understood her, so she could see no real downsides to losing the chance of their 'friendship'. What she didn't know was that over the years, this had attracted the attention of several groups of people for varying reasons. Some wished to have her 'treated' in a mental institution 'for the safety of others', whereas some wanted to have her watched for signs of talent that may indicate whether or not she could have a job with them in later life. One small government department suggested that she be moved to a safe house for no reason that they could disclose, but their wealth and influence had diminished astonishingly over the past twenty-something years, so they were almost immediately cried down.

It came as quite a shock to everyone then when a middle-aged man in a dark suit entered the room and asked if Aislinn Johnson could please pack up her things and come with him as there were some people who'd like to meet her.


	3. Chapter 3

The man introduced himself as 'a friend, but not someone you'll be seeing again if you fail.' Which was _really_ helpful. Aislinn couldn't help but notice that although he _did_ smell friendly (smell? I haven't used scent as a lie-detector for years), he also seemed like the kind of bloke you do NOT want to get on the wrong side of. He led her out of reception and through the car park to a large white van. When he gestured for her to enter it, she did so with caution. She knew he meant her no harm, but he seemed a little apprehensive as he followed her in.

Instantly she regretted coming as she heard the telltale hiss of gas being released and whirled round to see the man pulling a mask over his face. A horrible pain built up in her bones as she was overwhelmed by a mindless terror unlike anything she had ever experienced before. The last thing she heard before she blacked out was an incredulous laugh and the voice of the man saying softly "It's OK Dax – we found her for you."

When she woke, Aislinn stood shakily to find herself in a dimly-lit room with a huge mirror covering one wall and a wooden table and chairs against another. It reminded her somewhat of her nightmare – but, she consoled herself, this room was obviously not the same one; it was larger and it smelled completely different. She shook herself; that room was not and never had been real. She should not feel obligated to differentiate that odour from this. There was, however, one familiar scent. She put her snout to the carpet and followed it to the mirror. She cocked her head, confused for a moment. Then she gave a yelp of recognition as she realised three things: one, she was absolutely certain that the scent belonged to the man in the dark suit; two, he and a few others were definitely standing behind the mirror-wall. From what she could recall of the handful of spy films she'd watched with her parents, this indicated that it was actually a screen and that they were observing her. Three, the reflection in front of her, approximately three feet off the ground, was a huge blue-black she-wolf. This latest revelation did not come as as much of a shock as one would expect; but then, unlike with the room's scent before, she felt a kindling sense of dé jà vu when confronted with the memory of the dream.

Barely a moment later, the door behind her opened and the man walked in. He seemed overjoyed, if a little wary as he took in her teeth and claws. He tossed her a sausage; when she gulped it down he laughed that soft laugh again.

"Well, Aislinn – you're even more like him than I thought at first. He seemed pretty hungry after his first shift too." Aislinn shied away, wondering who the man kept referring to, and shook her head.

"What's that, wolfling? Not like him?" The sudden use of the nickname from the dream sent her reeling in shock; she shook her head again and whined. She didn't understand. The man sighed.

"My name is Owen Hind. I've been searching for you and your sister for ten years. I've gone to a lot of trouble to do so – even came back from the dead." He gave a dry chuckle. "Pity your Da couldn't do the same – but that's a topic for another day. Right now, you need to go to bed. I've put you in a room with Skylar and the twins" – She winced at the use of her dream-sister's name – "they're under orders not to disturb you till morning. Follow me."

Exiting the room, Aislinn saw that the building she was in was actually a large old-fashioned house. They walked through the corridors at a fast enough pace, but the man – Owen – stayed silent. Only her paws padding on the soft carpet gave any indication that either man or wolf had passed by at all. As the pair reached the second and attic floors Aislinn began to smell the combined scents of at least fifty children, about twenty of whom were her age. She was glad to smell an equal number of girls to boys; she didn't want to appear as especially conspicuous on her first appearance the next morning. She cringed inwardly as she realised that she hadn't spared her Mum and Dad a single thought since waking up. Had they agreed to... whatever this was? Were they coming to fetch her? She felt oddly averse to the thought. Did they even know what had happened?

All her inner musings were abruptly cut off as Owen stopped before the last room in the attic. They entered. She inhaled deeply and caught two near identical scents in two identical beds adjacent to each other with two identical messy tufts of blonde hair sticking out from the two identical duvets. She gave a small sigh. These must be the twins Owen had mentioned. Her breath suddenly caught; she turned slowly to her right as she saw another blonde head, this time a waist-length wave rippling out in locks from its owner's fair scalp. As Aislinn trotted softly over to the bed and licked the exposed hand she knew without a doubt that this girl, Skylar, was her sister, her littermate, and that she would give her life for the thirteen-year-old without a second thought. The child muttered something in her sleep as Aislinn gently withdrew her muzzle and turned to the remaining bed. She regarded it for a moment, then leapt silently on top of the covers and promptly fell into a deep sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Aislinn woke to find three blonde girls clustered around her bed.

The first two girls were her age, she could tell that with barely a sniff as she recalled the events of the day before. They were identical twins, very pretty, with messy, shoulder-length blonde hair that stuck out in tufts. Their mischievous green eyes widened slightly as they saw her liquid brown ones open. Their attention was suddenly caught by an object that Aislinn now realised was floating above her head. Her yelp of dismay would have sent the hairbrush tumbling down onto her face had it not been for the uncannily fast reflexes of the third girl.

"Thank you," Aislinn breathed, looking the younger girl straight in the eyes as she added in a whisper "Skylar."

The girl flinched. She was very pale, with bright blue eyes that seemed to bore into Aislinn, but she was beautiful in a way, with flowing blonde locks hanging in waves that went right down to her waist. She was, in fact, almost identical to Aislinn herself, save for the two-year age gap and Aislinn's dark colouring.

"Aislinn." Her sister's reply was barely audible, but Aislinn's wolf senses were quite capable of picking it up. The twins suddenly broke in, making the two girls jump.

"Hi, New Girl!" they chorused in unison, "Aislinn Jones, right?"

"We're the Reader Twins, but you can call us-"

"- Gita-"

"- And Lucie-"

"- 'Cause those are our names!" they trilled together again. "You'll be able to tell us apart better soon, 'cause Gita here is a wearer of spectacles."

"And Lucie here is at the heart of every unseemly spectacle you'll ever witness!" her sister declared dramatically.

Aislinn stared, quite speechless. "Er... my name is Johnson, not Jones."

"When Skylar first started here she called herself Sky Blackman. She's Skylar Hardman now, after your Mam, Lisa Hardman, all-round all-powerful psychic, the parent she takes after." Gita recited primly.

"You're Aislinn Jones now – I guess your mates called you 'Ashley Johnson' or something – after your Da, Dax or Daxesh Jones, who shifted into a fox, a peregrine and an otter." Lucie stated.

Aislinn just stared. "Um..."

Skylar looked at her sympathetically. "I know. They were like that with me too. Gita's the bookworm and all, but Lucie doesn't like being outdone apparently so she learns stuff too for the sake of keeping up."

"Hey – I am _not_ afraid of being outdone by my little sister!"

"Sure you're not – that's why you're always trying to talk before me, make friends before me and just generally outdo me socially 'cause you know I'll always beat you intellectually." The pair glared daggers at each other, and then grinned. "We're going to miss breakfast – RACE YOU!" screamed Lucie. Both girls shot to their feet, knocking over anything that stood in their way in an effort to drag on their uniforms and get to the dining hall before the other.

"They're right you know – we will miss the hot food if we're late." Skylar mused. "Plus I have to make sure you keep up with them in class today; they're in your year and they'll be showing you round between lessons. I have different Development sessions to all of you; they're both teles, or telekinetics. I'm a psychic, by the way."

"Thanks – wolf-shifter, obviously. But you'd probably know without me telling you anyway, eh little sister?" Aislinn smiled. Skylar responded, and somehow the four of them managed to get down to the main hall without any major incidents.

As soon as the girls walked through the door, they were greeted by a pair of identical boys who basically looked identical to Lucie and Gita, except they had shorter hair and were handsome rather than pretty. They introduced themselves as "Gwaine and Lancelot, at your service m'lady" with regal bows. Gwaine was the dominant twin in this pair, and it was Lance who wore the glasses. The pair chivalrously escorted the girls to their table a cousin and a friend on each arm. As it turned out, their respective dads were twins too.

"So", said Aislinn once she'd finished eating.

"What is this place?" chirped Gita.

"Why are we all here?" interjected Lance.

"Why do we all have powers?" chorused Gwaine and Lucie.

"What does all this have to do with our parents?" concluded Skylar quietly. "All six of them." she added with a small smile.

Aislinn considered. "Yes."


End file.
